Jewish doctor’s open letter denounces John Mann’s ‘attention-seeking’ claims of anti-Semitism

Last Updated: October 20, 2016By
livingstone3

John Mann (right), accompanied improbably by a camera crew, accosts Ken Livingstone on a stairwell. I used the image as the cover of a book which analyses Mr Mann’s claims.

This Writer is grateful to Dr Sam Glatt for his letter as it had not previously registered that John Mann wants to drum me out of the Labour Party for showing a certain amount of intelligence, reason and good judgment in the case of Jackie Walker.

Mr Mann could just as easily have called for my expulsion after I published The Livingstone Presumption (see also the advert at the bottom of this article), I suppose, which addressed his unreasonable attack on Ken Livingstone and the issues surrounding it. I used the image above as the basis for the book’s cover. I strongly urge everyone who disagrees with Mr Mann to pick up a copy (I have deliberately made them inexpensive).

I found the following on Michael Rosen‘s Facebook page. Please feel free to circulate it further:

This letter is being circulated. It comes from a doctor who is 90 years old, Jewish and in the Labour Party. It’s addressed to John Mann MP

“Dear Mr Mann, 18/10/2016

It is with a sense of deep distaste personally, and an even deeper concern for the future of our freedom of speech, generally, that I have viewed your recent antics. In my opinion, your behaviour appears both narcissistic and attention-seeking, in the extreme. Whether it is at a level at which one could view it as pathological, I am not sufficiently qualified to say, but it is my view that ‘the man on the Clapham omnibus’ may, reasonably, harbour suspicions.

Your ambush of Ken Livingstone, with pre-arranged media presence is a case in point. Any less reasonable man may have told you to ‘clear off’. Instead he tried, in a calm manner, to point out the historical evidence to support what he had said. His words fell on (your) deaf ears, for you, of course, had decided already that he ‘would float if you threw him in the river’ (the test applied, historically, vis a vis witchcraft). Cynical observers too, may, possibly, take the view that you are attempting, on behalf of others, to airbrush history, in the name of anti-Semitism.

John Mann at the centre of an ‘anti-Semitic storm’ despite not being Jewish!

Are you not aware of the potential of historical resonance here? Let’s, for the sake of argument, turn history on its head and assume that the Nazis had won WW2. You can imagine, can you not, that they would want to stamp out any reference to the ‘Final Solution’? After all, political opponents in actual historical fact had already gone to the extermination camps, along with the mentally ill, those with learning difficulty, Roma and the Jewish community. So, one might imagine that the Nazis might encourage the denunciation of those who would wish to speak the truth, as ‘Jew lovers’ and make them targets for ‘neutralisation’. Do you take my point? Thankfully, such a situation never came about, thanks to the sacrifice of over 400,000 people, including my own brother, (and many more from other nations) who gave their lives to preserve our freedom of speech.

Let me now refer to matters In connection with Jackie Walker, the former vice-chair of Momentum and with whom we share membership of the Labour Party. I do not wish to refer to the specifics of the matter as her appeal against suspension from the Party is pending, (although the issue of the circumstances of her ‘entrapment’ and ‘denunciation’, are deeply worrying to me). However, your comments that all Labour members who supported her “should be expelled from the Party,” which were reported in the media, absolutely appalled me. The implied ‘guilt by association’ is akin to the ‘fellow traveller’ accusations made during the McCarthyite era in the USA. Shame on you.

There seems to be a desire, on your part, to conflate (i.e. run together as if they represent the same meaning), the words and concepts of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Or perhaps you are just confused? I never have been. To me anti-Zionism represents political opposition to a style of social and political expression stemming from a particular religious interpretation of Judaism. Anti-Semitism, on the other hand, refers to a dislike of Jews, which is rooted in the same xenophobic soil as other forms of racism. When this is openly displayed, we, in Britain have anti-discrimination laws, including those relating to hate speech. Now…the application of and efficacy of our legislation is a matter open for debate and is something you can, potentially, influence as an MP. Why then, at this present time, are you focusing your attention on the Labour Party?

That brings me to the issue of the political motivation for your actions. It has been suggested that your prime motivation, given your position on the right-wing of the Labour Party, is to attempt to undermine the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and all that he stands for. I was a committed and experienced member of the Socialist Medical/Health Association (affiliated) since 1946 and have been a member of the Labour Party since 1972, or thereabouts. As such, I find it difficult not to agree with such a conclusion, in the current circumstances. No doubt your fairly regular visits to Israel (as a consequence of your documented links with organisations and individuals there) must be enjoyable for you on a personal level, but would not, surely, be sufficient incentive, in of themselves?

No…. my view is that, to use military terms, you represent a sniper with a long range rifle, ‘softening up’ the enemy, causing confusion in the opposing ranks, picking off individuals and making people afraid of putting their head above the barricades. You are, however, in my view, waiting for your ‘General’ a.k.a. Tony Blair to come and rally the troops for a counter-offensive. I admire your loyalty to him, but would point out that he doesn’t have an awfully good record militarily. That poor record had quite a lot to do with the allies he chose, or was coerced by (in that regard it was interesting to see Mr Blairs’ presence, almost as if he were still a head of state, at the recent funeral of Shimon Peres, in Israel).

So there we have it….I have concern about the nature of your personal behaviour: I am a Corbyn supporter, and have great sympathy with the situation of Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker, to whom I offer my solidarity: I am also not afraid to look to history for lessons and I view your actions as being ‘McCarthyite’ in nature: I refuse to conflate Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and I see through your cloak of justification and heap scorn upon your underlying political motivation……

So, please feel free to denounce me, though, I suspect, that you lack the moral and political courage to do so.

Throughout my 90 years, I have always held to a belief in the essential goodness of people. That belief has been severely tested in recent times, as I have witnessed your machinations and those of the Labour PLP.

Today, the mere demands of day to day living tax me greatly, but with all the energy I can muster, at the age of 90 years, I offer you, Sir, unfortunately, not fraternal wishes, but my heartfelt derision.

Dr Sam Glatt MCRS LRCP MB ChB
British, Socialist Jew.

John Mann MP,
House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA
Cc Jeremy Corbyn MP, Leader of the Labour Party, [email protected]
Ken Livingstone, Jackie Walker”

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10 Comments

  1. Ruby @ Scarlet (@MsRubyScarlet) October 20, 2016 at 11:33 am - Reply

    Thanks for posting this. Twitter are blocking the original URL and it can’t be tweeted, so this is a valuable page. Tweeted.

  2. Robert Davies October 20, 2016 at 11:38 am - Reply

    Wow! that was a letter and a half, and my mum always said the good die young, what an inspiration too all of us, Dr Sam Glatt may you continue to live a long and wonderful life.
    And thank you Mike for circulating it.

  3. Roland Laycock October 20, 2016 at 12:01 pm - Reply

    A first class letter in which I totaly agree Mann is as the letter says a Blairit and not a real Labour Party member and should be given the order of the boot

  4. paulrutherford8 October 20, 2016 at 12:25 pm - Reply

    A superb, thoughtful, rational and accurate letter. Excellent.

  5. tom October 20, 2016 at 2:59 pm - Reply

    If Mr Mann read this letter, he
    1- acknowledge it
    2- offer his resignation or at least to be desellected.
    3- this letter is a lesson for life for anybody.

  6. jeffrey davies October 20, 2016 at 4:20 pm - Reply

    and there we have it

  7. mohandeer October 20, 2016 at 4:49 pm - Reply

    Whoah. I would not like to get on the wrong side of this chap’s favour. Whew!
    A well crafted and laudable counter assault against Mann’s machinations.
    Many thanks Mike – re-posted it everywhere.

  8. SANDRA CRAWFORD October 20, 2016 at 8:22 pm - Reply

    I have huge respect for you. your truthful analysis lends more weight than most of us, which is why it is all the more powerful. I have always thought of these attacks on the left as McCarthyism, a method of suppressing the left with smear campaigns, which even Theresa May got down in the gutter with in PMQs this week. We must put a stop to this, or it will get worse.
    Thank you for protecting the left. It is the left that gave us treasures like the NHS, and many other things that make a decent society. The left is worth protecting. Thank you.

  9. davebt October 23, 2016 at 7:41 am - Reply

    oh dear. It is a forgery. A con. Written it seems by a non Jewish Momentum activist. People on the radical left forging ‘Jewish documents’ that are used to spread the disease of antisemitism.Where have we seen this before?
    One would hope at some point you realise how far down the slippery slope some have fallen

    • Mike Sivier October 23, 2016 at 10:27 am - Reply

      I do indeed. Yourself, for example?
      The letter was not a forgery. Here’s an article explaining that. Please read. I expect your apology later today.

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